Rainbow Fish

We have been very active in our local libraries summer reading program, and I thought it would be fun to include a craft with some of the books we have been reading. I wish I could for all of them, but there are just way too many! So we just recently read the story Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. A cute little story about a fish with shiny scales on his body. Well after digging around my art stash I remembered that I had bubble wrap. Perfect way to use it up!!!

Supplies needed:
bubble wrap for each fish (I found a roll at Dollar Tree)
fish shape cut out of cardstock
blue, green, purple, white, and black paints
foam paint brush
egg carton for paints
glitter

I started out by drawing out a fish shape and having it cut out for each child. I layered newspaper on the table to protect it from the paint. Next up we mixed our paints. In the story the fish is all shades of blue, green, and purple so I thought it would be fun to mix up some new shades. I made sure there was a spot of the plain color first, next I mixed each color with a little white, a little black, and a little of each of the other colors (like blue into purple, purple into blue, blue into green, and green into blue). The kids really thought it was neat to see the different shades. Next, cut out the bubble wrap just a little larger than your paper fish cut out. Show the kids how to dab on paint of different colors all over the bubble wrap. It doesn't matter if your colors mix, it will all come out great! After the bubble wrap is covered in paint, lay the paper fish on top of the paint and smooth with hands. Slowly pull the fish back up and flip over! Before the paint dries, sprinkle with glitter to give the fish some shiny scales.

The kids had a blast with this one!